Wherein lies a poet's claim to originality? That he invents his incidents? No. That he was present when his episodes had their… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
One must keep one's character. Earn a character first if you can, and if you can't, then assume one. From the code… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
My first American ancestor, gentlemen, was an Indian-an early Indian. Your ancestors skinned him alive, and I am an orphan. All those… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
It's an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
It's awful undermining to the intellect, German is; you want to take it in small doses, or first you know your brains… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy with the chance; the last half consists of the chance without… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Surely the ass who invented the first religion ought to be the first ass damned — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
You can't reason someone out of something that they weren't reasoned into in the first place. — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
I am living a new and exalted life of late. It steeps me in a sacred rapture to see a portrait develop… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
My advice to girls: first, don't smoke - to excess; second, don't drink - to excess; third, don't marry - to excess. — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Stars are good too. I wish I could get some to put in my hair. But I suppose I never can. You… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
The secret to success: find out where people are going and get there first — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them --… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
That reminds me to remark, in passing, that the very first official thing I did, in my administration-and it was on the… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Even popularity can be overdone. In Rome, along at first, you are full of regrets that Michelangelo died; but by and by,… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam,… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
...Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel;… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
...one of the first achievements of the legislature was to institute a ten-thousand-dollar agricultural fair to show off forty dollars' worth of… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Where was the use, originally, in rushing this whole globe through in six days? It is likely that if more time had… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth. — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
If you had made the acquiring of ignorance the study of your life, you could not have graduated with higher honor than you could… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
“The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
A man accustomed to American food and American domestic cookery would not starve to death suddenly in Europe, but I think he would gradually… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
I never write Metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city. I never write policeman because I can get… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
The higher animals get their teeth without pain or inconvenience. Man gets his through months and months of cruel torture; he will never get… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
“As far as I can see, Italy, for fifteen hundred years, has turned all her energies, all her finances, and all her industry to… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Begin with the determination to succeed and the work is half done already. — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
Many public-school children seem to know only two dates—1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
